Liberty And Justice For All

    

Tucson Weather Today

 

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From CNN:
To the families of the victims, Ethan Couch was a killer on the road, a drunken teenage driver who caused a crash that left four people dead.

To the defense, the youth is himself a victim -- of "affluenza," according to one psychologist -- the product of wealthy, privileged parents who never set limits for the boy.

To a judge, who sentenced Couch to 10 years' probation but no jail time, he's a defendant in need of treatment.

Complete Story From CNN

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There is no good reason why I took a series of pictures as the sun rose up over the Rincon Mountains, especially since I knew the sun was way too bright for my camera to capture it.

I took several shots but only one of them was recorded in the camera's memory.

Bright Morning Sun As Seen From Front Porch

 

Tucson Sunrise Over The Rincons

All the reds and oranges and deep blues my eyes saw were somehow missing in the photo.

I am so disappointed.

OH well . . .  that's life, I suppose.

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Did You Know . . .?

The longest recorded flight of a chicken was 13 seconds.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 2003 after spending nine months on the run, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was captured. Saddam's downfall began on March 20, 2003, when the United States led an invasion force into Iraq to topple his government, which was reported to be hiding weapons of mass destruction, and which had controlled the country for more than 20 years.

At trial in November 5 2006, he was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by hanging. After an unsuccessful appeal, he was executed on December 30, 2006. Despite a prolonged search, weapons of mass destruction were never found in Iraq.

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WORD FOR TODAY

justice
noun
1. The quality of being just; fairness.
2.
 a. The principle of moral rightness; equity.
 b. Conformity to moral rightness in action or attitude; righteousness.
3.
 a. The upholding of what is just, especially fair treatment and due reward in accordance with honor, standards, or law.
 b. Law The administration and procedure of law.
4. Conformity to truth, fact, or sound reason: The overcharged customer was angry, and with justice.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Richard Wayne "Dick" Van Dyke
(born December 13, 1925)

Dick Van Dyke is an American actor, comedian, writer, singer, dancer, and producer with a career spanning seven decades. He is the older brother of Jerry Van Dyke and father of Barry Van Dyke. Van Dyke starred in the films Bye Bye Birdie, Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and in the TV series The Dick Van Dyke Show and Diagnosis: Murder. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard. Van Dyke received The Life Achievement Award at the annual Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony on January 27, 2013.

Wendie Malick
(born December 13, 1950)

Wendie Malick is an American actress and former fashion model, known for her roles as Judith Tupper Stone on the HBO series Dream On (1990–1996), Nina Van Horn on the NBC sitcom Just Shoot Me! (1997–2003) and Ronee Lawrence on the NBC sitcom Frasier (2003–2004). Malick plays Victoria Chase on the TV Land sitcom Hot in Cleveland.

Herman Cain
(born December 13, 1945)

Herman Cain is an American author, business executive, radio host, syndicated columnist, and Tea Party activist from Georgia. He was a candidate for the 2012 U.S. Republican Party presidential nomination.

Taylor Alison Swift
(born December 13, 1989)

 Taylor Swift is an American singer-songwriter. The release of Swift's eponymous debut album in 2006 established her as a country music star. "Our Song", her third single, made her the youngest person to single-handedly write and perform a number one song on the country chart. She received a Best New Artist nomination at the 2008 Grammy Awards.

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It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.
--James A. Baldwin

This Is Who I Am

    

Conspiracy Theory Or Simply Conspiracy?

     

Tucson Weather Today

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I recently read a quote attributed to Franklin D. Roosevelt that went like this: "A financial element in the large centers has owned the government since the days of Andrew Jackson."

What exactly does that mean? It seems to me (and to others) to be either a gem of revealed truth, or a type of paranoia, a conspiracy theory. There is an almost endless discussion about this at debunking websites... such as Metabunk.org


A term I have never been able to understand the meaning of is: "larger then life." -- as in, "Abraham Lincoln was a man who was larger than life."

What does that mean?

According to the dictionary, it means: more interesting and more exciting than an ordinary person or thing.

Is that all there is to it?

Who'd have thought so?


Oh! By the way . . .

Last week I posted a picture of graffiti on a sidewall of Robb Wash.

Here it is again.

It seems that Mother Nature didn't appreciate the vandalism

She dropped some dead limbs to conceal it.

This picture was taken yesterday morning

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TRIVIA

A shrimp's heart is in its head.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, September 24 in 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson received a special commission's report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which had occurred on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.

Since the assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was killed by a man named Jack Ruby almost immediately after murdering Kennedy, Oswald's motive for assassinating the president remained unknown. Seven days after the assassination, Johnson appointed the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy to investigate Kennedy's death. The commission was led by Chief Justice Earl Warren and became known as the Warren Commission. It concluded that Oswald had acted alone and that the Secret Service had made poor preparations for JFK's visit to Dallas and had failed to sufficiently protect him.

The circumstances surrounding Kennedy's death, however, have since given rise to several conspiracy theories involving such disparate characters as the Mafia, Cuban exiles, military leaders and even Lyndon Johnson. So persistent was the controversy that another congressional investigation was conducted in 1979; that committee reached the same conclusion as the Warren Commission.

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WORD FOR TODAY

conspiracy  [kuhn-speer'-uh-see]
noun
1.  An agreement to perform together an illegal, wrongful, or subversive act.
2.  A group of conspirators.
3.  A joining or acting together, as if by sinister design: a conspiracy of wind and tide that devastated coastal areas.
4.  Law An agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime or accomplish a legal purpose through illegal action.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

John Watts Young

(born September 24, 1930)

John Young is a retired American astronaut, Naval officer, test pilot and aeronautical engineer, who became the ninth person to walk on the Moon as commander of the Apollo 16 mission in 1972.

Young enjoyed the longest career of any astronaut, becoming the first person to make six space flights, over the course of 42 years of active NASA service, and is the only person to have piloted four different classes of spacecraft: Gemini, the Apollo Command/Service Module, the Apollo Lunar Module, and the Space Shuttle.

Erin Chambers

(born September 24, 1979)

Erin Chambers is an American actress commonly known for her roles in LDS films and as the Irish girl Siobhan McKenna Spencer on General Hospital. She has made guest appearances in a number of television shows such as Drake & Josh, ER, Veronica Mars, Joan of Arcadia, Stargate: Atlantis, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: NY, Bones, Standoff, and Cold Case. Chambers starred as Priscilla Presley in the 2007 film Tears of a King alongside Matt Lewis as Elvis Presley, which depicts Elvis's last years.

Louis Carl "Lou" Dobbs

(born September 24, 1945)

Lou Dobbs is an American television personality and radio host on the Fox Business Network, and author. He anchored CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight until November 2009 when he announced on the air that he would leave the network.

On November 10, 2010, Fox Business Network announced that Dobbs would host a show on the channel. The network announced on March 3, 2011 the start date, show title, and time slot of Dobbs' new show. The show is titled Lou Dobbs Tonight and began on March 14, 2011, airing at 7 PM Eastern. That is the same title and time slot that Dobbs' old CNN show had.

Audra Marie Lindley

(Sept 24, 1918 - Oct 16, 1997)

Audra Lindley was an American actress, most famous for her role as landlady Helen Roper on the sitcom Three's Company and its spin-off, The Ropers.

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Secrecy, being an instrument of conspiracy, ought never to be the system of a regular government.
--Jeremy Bentham

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

   

It's Said That The Spirit Is Willing

     

Tucson Weather Today

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A while back I wrote briefly about my inability to understand the concept of spirituality, but it was not much more than a mere statement and not an in depth examination of the subject.

According to Wikipedia, "Social scientists have defined spirituality as the search for the sacred, for that which is set apart from the ordinary and worthy of veneration, a transcendent dimension within human experience, discovered in moments in which the individual questions the meaning of personal existence and attempts to place the self within a broader ontological context."

It is no wonder that I have trouble grasping the meaning of spirituality; I can't even grok the meaning of the above paragraph.

From my point of view, it seems that there are men (and maybe women) who are striving mightily to convince the people of the Earth that there exists an all-knowing and all-powerful being they call God, a magnificent being who created from nothing the entire universe for the purpose of housing a species of biological protoplasm known as Mankind.

And that is called spirituality, the search for the sacred. But the search is over. Man has found God

These teachers, preachers, priests, rabbis and assorted philosophers, these spiritual guides all profess to know this God, know his aims and intentions, know what must be done by His sheep in order to please Him. Many even claim to have seen God in all his glory,  which is strange indeed, because within the pages of The King James bible this very God decrees: "And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live." -- yet the preachers go on living.

Spirituality.

Curious.

Curiouser and curiouser.

Is spirituality related to the term spirit?'

I have read  that a the human spirit is an incorporeal but ubiquitous, non-quantifiable substance or energy present individually in all living things. Unlike the concept of souls (often regarded as eternal and sometimes believed to pre-exist the body) a spirit develops and grows as an integral aspect of a living being. If that be so, then it is the spirit of a human being that searches for the sacred, perhaps searching for something greater than the questing  spirit itself.

Great Caesar's Ghost!

I'm going to give myself a headache if I don't give up this silliness.

I don't really care about it anyway.

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During my morning walk I saw the end of existence for the long-abandoned gas station on the Southwest corner of the intersection at Speedway Boulevard and Pantano Road. After a year or more of sitting empty, the building, the underground fuel storage tanks, and even the tarmac were all yielding to the insistence of bulldozers, and unconditionally surrendered to total demolition.

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TRIVIA

R. L. Stine, the author of the Goosebumps series, has sold more books than any other author, more than 220 million books since 1992, when his first book, Welcome to the Dead House, was published.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, September 7, 1911, French poet Guillaume Apollinaire was arrested and jailed on suspicion of stealing Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa from the Louvre museum in Paris. The 31-year-old poet was known for his radical views and support for extreme avant-garde art movements.

Apollinaire's mysterious background and radical views led authorities to view him as a dangerous foreigner and prime suspect in the Mona Lisa heist, which took place August 22. No evidence surfaced, and Apollinaire was released after five days. Apollinaire implicated his friend Pablo Picasso, who was also brought in for questioning in the theft of Mona Lisa, but he was also exonerated.

Two years later, a former employee of the Louvre, Vincenzo Perggia, was arrested while trying to sell the famous painting to an art dealer.

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WORD FOR TODAY

praxis [prak'-sihs]
noun
1. Practical application or exercise of a branch of learning.
2. Habitual or established practice; custom.

Praxis is the process by which a theory, lesson, or skill is enacted, practiced, embodied, or realised.

Praxis may also refer to the act of engaging, applying, exercising, realizing, or practicing ideas.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Julie Deborah Kavner

(born September 7, 1950)

Julie Kavner is an American film and television actress, comedian and voice artist. Noted for her role as Marge Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons, she also voices other characters for the show, including Jacqueline Bouvier, and Patty and Selma Bouvier. 

Kavner was cast in her first professional acting role as Brenda Morgenstern in Rhoda in 1974. Following Rhoda, Kavner was cast in The Tracey Ullman Show, which debuted in 1987. The Tracey Ullman Show included a series of animated shorts about a dysfunctional family. Voices were needed for the shorts, so the producers decided to ask Kavner to voice Marge. The shorts would eventually be spun off into The Simpsons.

In 1992, she starred in This Is My Life, her first leading role in a feature film. Kavner has also appeared in live-action roles in seven films written by Woody Allen, and in the Adam Sandler comedy Click.

Michael Emerson

(born September 7, 1954)

Michael Emerson is an American film and television character actor who is perhaps best known for his roles as serial killer William Hinks in The Practice, Benjamin Linus on Lost, and as Harold Finch on the CBS series Person of Interest.

Margaret Ellen "Peggy" Noonan

(born September 7, 1950)

Peggy Noonan is an American author of seven books on politics, religion, and culture, and a weekly columnist for The Wall Street Journal. She was a primary speech writer and Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan and in her political writings is considered a Republican. Five of Noonan's books have been New York Times bestsellers. Noonan is a trustee of the Manhattan Institute.  She was nominated for an Emmy Award for her work on America: A Tribute to Heroes. She has also been widely recognized for her regular appearances on ABC's This Week and NBC's Meet The Press.

Shannon Elizabeth

(born September 7, 1973)

Shannon Elizabeth is an American actress and former fashion model. Elizabeth is well known for her roles in comedy films such as American Pie, Scary Movie and Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back. She is also known for her work in horror films such as Thirteen Ghosts, Cursed, and Night of the Demons. She became widely known as a sex symbol for her role in the 1999 comedy film American Pie.

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It's a kind of spiritual snobbery that makes people think they can be happy without money.
--Albert Camus

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

   

I'm Walkin' - Yes Indeed I'm Walkin'

    

Tucson Weather Today

 

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Yesterday (Wednesday) I hauled my unwilling body out the door and went for a morning walk. My route was: East on Calle del Valle to Coronado where I turned and continued on to Soldier Trail, upon which I traveled South to Fort Lowell Road, where I entered a path through the scrubland alongside Ft.Lowell to Calle del Rincon, which I followed to Calle del Valle and then to the house.

Below are six of the shots I took while on the walking path.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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TRIVIA

It would take about 225 million years to walk one light-year at the pace of a 20-minute mile.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, August 29 in 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall near New Orleans, Louisiana, as a Category 4 hurricane. Despite being only the third most powerful storm of the 2005 hurricane season, Katrina was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.

After briefly coming ashore in southern Florida on August 25 as a Category 1 hurricane, Katrina gained strength before slamming into the Gulf Coast on August 29. In addition to bringing devastation to the New Orleans area, the hurricane caused damage along the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama, as well as other parts of Louisiana.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city on August 28, when Katrina briefly achieved Category 5 status and the National Weather Service predicted "devastating" damage to the area. But an estimated 150,000 people ignored the order and stayed behind. The storm brought sustained winds of 145 miles per hour, which cut power lines and destroyed homes. Katrina caused record storm surges all along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The surges overwhelmed the levees that protected New Orleans, located at six feet below sea level, from Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River. Soon, 80 percent of the city was flooded up to the rooftops of many homes and small buildings.

It is believed that the hurricane caused more than 1,300 deaths and up to $150 billion in damages. It is estimated that only about $40 billion of that number will be covered by insurance. One million people were displaced by the disaster, a phenomenon unseen in the United States since the Great Depression. Four hundred thousand people lost their jobs as a result of the disaster. Offers of international aid poured in from around the world, even from poor countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Private donations from U.S. citizens alone approached $600 million.

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WORD FOR TODAY

scrubland
noun
An area of land that is uncultivated and covered with sparse stunted vegetation.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

 

Michael Jackson
(August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009)

Michael Jackson was an American singer-songwriter, dancer, businessman and philanthropist. Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records. His contributions to music, dance, and fashion, along with his publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades.

Lea Michele Sarfati
(born August 29, 1986)

Lea Michele is an American actress and singer, best known for her performance as Rachel Berry on the Fox television series Glee. Michele began working professionally as a child actress on Broadway in productions such as Les Misérables, Ragtime, and Fiddler on the Roof. In 2006, she originated the lead role of Wendla in the Broadway musical Spring Awakening.

Ingrid Bergman
(Aug 29, 1915 - Aug 29, 1982)

Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute. She is best remembered for her roles as Ilsa Lund in Casablanca (1942), a World War II drama co-starring Humphrey Bogart, and as Alicia Huberman in Notorious (1946), an Alfred Hitchcock thriller co-starring Cary Grant.

Ingrid Bergman died on her birthday in 1982.

John Sidney McCain III
(born August 29, 1936)

John McCain is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was Republican presidential nominee in the 2008 United States election.

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All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.
--Friedrich Nietzsche

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

    

Keepin' Busy Elsewhere . . .

As of 1 P.M. Arizona Time I have not found time from my other writing-related project to compose an entry into the blog. If I do so later today, I will post it then.

In place of my missing deathless prose, I will fill in with a couple pictures of a hawk (a red-tailed hawk, I think) perched on a highway light fixture overlooking East Speedway Boulevard.

Taken during my fitness walk day before yesterday

as I was walking West

Then

Taken after passing under the hawk . . .

with my camera nearly facing the sun

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Can't Think Of A Suitable Title

Back in 1994 I subscribed to a Writers Mailing List -- a group of people who shared with each other their creative-writing experiences, both their accomplishments and their failures. It was a large group, at that time with at least one hundred active members and it kept a guy busy reading all their postings and fully-absorbing their sometimes suddenly revealed hidden meanings.

Without getting into blame or the various reasons for what it has become, I'm sorry to say that Writers has degenerated into a mere shell of its former glory, the long-time members reluctant to post and the newer members too unsure of themselves to risk opening themselves up to possibly hurtful criticism. Presently less than ten of the members regularly offer postings. It is now a small group. It's now down to a few diehards like me. See Photo Album

Happily the demise of Writers has been accompanied by a rapid proliferation of aspiring writers who fill the social void (in me) by posting written (also sometimes hidden secret) images of their personalities to individual websites provided by Blogspot.

Separating the wheat from the chaff has been a long process but now I have amassed a fair number of such blogs that I now read each morning before I dive into the (cess) pool of my own mind to come up with something to post in my own blog.

I admit, though, that lately I have been quite remiss in investing sufficient thought into my blog entries. My excuse is that I am immersed in the multitudinous details of getting ready to move from Florida to another state. And doing so is taking a toll, which I am reserving as grist for future blog postings.

Not that it matters. Very few are reading my postings anyway. But that will change one day, of that I am fairly certain.

Until then, though . . .